In conventional assemblies, seats are designed to provide a level of comfort to a user by allowing a certain degree of reclination of a seat back relative to a base. To provide further comfort, the seat can include armrests which allow a user to place his or her arms thereon. Many prior art designs, however, do not provide adapt the armrests when the seat is placed in a reclined position. Instead, the armrests can maintain substantially a perpendicular disposition relative to the seat back wherein the user's arms are pointed upward in awkward position thereby causing discomfort
In order to overcome this shortcoming, self-leveling armrests have been employed for use with reclining seats. These self-leveling deigns allow the armrest to remain substantially parallel to the seat base regardless of the position of the seat back. Conventional self-leveling armrest designs, however, suffer from complex designs and resulting exorbitant costs. Accordingly, such prior art designs are impractical for use in the market place as the cost is too great. Moreover, these designs integrate the self-leveling armrest completely with the frame of the seat thereby forcing a manufacturer to build entire seat assembly to provide any variance in armrest features. Moreover, the manufacturer is forced to sell a single model which is incapable of modification or modularity. As a result, a customer or end user is unable to choose from one or more custom solutions.
In view of the above deficiencies, seat assemblies are needed that can accommodate modular armrest designs.